Over 50% Of Ukrainians Living In South, East Of Country Oppose Autocephaly - Poll

The number of Ukrainians approving the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate stands below 50 percent in the south and in the east of the country, while most of the supporters of this move reside in the western Ukrainian regions, a fresh poll by the Ukrainian sociological group Rating revealed on Wednesday.

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) The number of Ukrainians approving the decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to grant autocephaly to the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate stands below 50 percent in the south and in the east of the country, while most of the supporters of this move reside in the western Ukrainian regions, a fresh poll by the Ukrainian sociological group Rating revealed on Wednesday.

According to the poll, 45 percent of Ukrainians living in the south of the country approve autocephaly, while the proportion of its supporters in the east of Ukraine reaches only 37 percent. Respondents living in the west of Ukraine are more favorable of Constantinople's move, with 68 percent of those surveyed having voiced their support to the decision. A total of 58 percent of respondents living in central Ukraine hail the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's independence.

The poll also showed that the number of Ukrainians supporting the idea of creating a unified local church in the country amounted to 54 percent nationwide, while 19 percent of respondents felt negative about it, and another 19 percent said that they did not care.

While 36 percent of those surveyed believed that the creation of a unified church would unite the country, the proportion of those who said the initiative was unlikely to have any effect on the Ukrainian consolidation stood at 23 percent. A total of 24 percent of Ukrainians said that this move may split the Ukrainian people.

In September, a poll by the Ukrainian Social Monitoring center revealed that 45 percent of Ukrainians felt positive about autocephaly.

The poll was conducted from September 27 to October 4, with 2,000 respondents surveyed across Ukraine. The survey was conducted through a personal interview. The error margin does not exceed 2.2 percent.

On Monday, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) announced cancellation of Eucharistic communion with the Constantinople Patriarchate in connection with Constantinople's decision to start the process of granting autocephaly to the non-canonical church in Ukraine, which the ROC called a schism.

The ROC's Holy Synod called Constantinople's decision to withdraw the act of 1686, which transferred the Kiev archdiocese to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, canonically insignificant and noted that the decision was politically motivated. Head of the ROC's department for external church relations Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the ROC hoped that the decision to grant autocephaly to the Ukrainian church would be reversed, and until that time, Constantinople would be in a schism.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate said that Constantinople's decision was a hostile act that interfered with the Ukrainian church's affairs, and that it did not rule out stopping communion with Constantinople and anathematizing Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.